Category: Nature + Moon + Tea

Saturday Reading: 6 Interesting things I found on the Internet

There are so many interesting things to be discovered on a warm and lazy Saturday afternoon at home. Here are 6 interesting things that I found on the internet:

  1. Zalipie is no ordinary Polish village. It’s a beautiful quaint Painted Village, the idea of which I find utterly inspiring.
  2. This article on pachamama.org talks about why our souls need nature.
  3. Have you heard of the Sentinelese islanders? They’re said to be the most isolated tribe in the world. It’s interesting to know that wild places and people virtually untouched by the domestication and often destructive hand of modern society still exist in today’s world. Their violent nature does sound a bit scary. I guess to them its a matter of self-preservation. Unfortunately for the Sentinelese, fishing companies are rumoured to be encroaching more and more into their territory. One can only hope that the Indian government’s 3 mile exclusion zone will assist in protecting the island and the Sentinelese from intrusion and outside contact that would probably wipe them out of existence.
  4. For all the flower loving goddesses, Monica Sabolla Gruppo offers some tips on how to make a beautiful DIY bouquet that stays fresh.
  5. Sophia Rose from La Abeja Herbs wrote a blog post about the sacred and healing practice of Bajos, or yoni/vaginal steams.
  6. Stacey LL Couch created this wonderful Spirit Animal Library.

 Happy Saturday!

Mature Linden Tree

Drawing the Land In

“…I sit as usual in my little kitchen with the cheerful hearth warming my back. As I look up from my writing, I can see out over the plains through my small window. The fire, Tikkie my parrot and the plains are all co-authors of this book with me.” ~ Antoinette Pienaar

I re-read this passage from The Griqua Apprentice by candle light last night during load shedding (rolling blackouts). It made me think about how the landscapes that we inhabit have a way of immersing themselves in us. We breathe their dusty breath into our bodies. We drink in of its life giving waters. We rest our feet in its sand.

Landscapes capture our imaginations and seep into our dreams. They weave stories and energetic vibrations into our auras. The elements of the land influence our experiences and shape how we live our days.

So yes, I love that the author of this passage – a wise medicine woman, a woman of the land – acknowledges that the fire and the plains are writing her book with her. In my personal work, a significant part of what I write are the stories of landscapes or gathered pieces of Nature who are sharing their sacred voices with me. I’m reminded over and again that we are one being, different parts of a greater whole, breathing and beating and creating wild Earth whispers together. Often, I am just a messenger stringing together words, transcribing songs and poems that the landscapes have been singing since ancient times.

Eco-intuitive writer or not, all writers bear witness to both people and places. In so doing, they inevitably convey the essence of the land or the spirit of place, through the sentences they string together in the name of story.

The landscapes shape our words. Sylivia demonstrates that so perfectly in her latest (and somewhat heart breaking) on The Indigo Vat where she wrote:

“Under the Beltane full moon, under the milk moon, I took the nearly completed manuscript of Elk Lines out to a little cabin on the Inverness Ridge, in Point Reyes, to walk it among the real elk lines of the land.”

…And,

“I edited with red pen on the shores of ocean and bay, hoping that I was leaving space, by carrying the manuscript out thus, for the land to have its say. To make sure my words do as much justice as they can to this place.”

To end off with, I have something a little exciting to share. I recently did a Wild Soul Story podcast interview with Mary Reynolds Thompson. In the interview, I talk about a wild soul experience and encounter I had with an owl when I was 12 years old. I’ve mentioned Mary and a beautiful book, Reclaiming the Wild Soul, here before. She is a kindred spirit whose work I really admire her work, so I’m deeply honoured to be featured in her incredible Wild Soul Story interview series. Considering that I’m not the best speaker, I’m proud of myself for getting out of my comfort zone and doing it anyway. Click here to listen to the interview…  

morning journal at the sea

Willow Healing

In the midst of an enchanted, crystal forest
lies my soul,
beneath a weeping willow
tree. ~ Monika Arnett

This afternoon, I find myself thinking of a Weeping Willow tree that I once knew. She made her home in the office garden of the place I used to work at, and subsequently found a home in my heart too. A beautiful old willow growing nowhere near any water. Yet still, she did her best to thrive where fate had laid her roots.

Sometimes during my lunch break, I’d sit near her and practice tree breathing. Giving thanks for her breath and offering my exhale back to her. The willow tree went to sleep during winter. She’d shed her leaves and droop her twigs in a sleepy and sombre demeanour, as willow’s do. She’d sway her bare wiry limbs wildly in the August winds. And when Spring came, her gentle and nurturing energy sprung back to life with new green leaves and a fresh aroma. I swear it was as if the willow was smiling and dealing bursts of childlike giggles when she re-emerged in the season of rebirth.

weeping willow 1

In The Healing Power of Trees, Sharlyn Hidalgo wrote:

“When you feel troubled, in emotional pain, or very angry, bring Willow’s energy in. She will hold you and allow you to accept your feelings so you can release them, and she will offer you comfort. Like Apple, Willow is a great mother.”

When I think of the way I felt in her presence, the way her leaves danced around me in the breeze and brushed against my skin. When I think of how one afternoon, when I was feeling particularly low, I stood next to her and she threw her thin branches over me, as if to wrap me in her embrace, I know there is truth to Hidalgo’s words. That willow tree was my medicine woman, pouring healing into me.

I often felt that this dear weeping willow’s life must have been hard. The soil she grew in was rocky, dry and she was in a dreary spot. She must have been dreaming of her brothers and sisters growing down by the river. Alas, she took the hand she was dealt in her stride, fulfilling her potential as best as she could and still shared her incredible love and beauty with whoever cared to look. That inspires me. I am grateful to have known this weeping willow.

Samhain blessings to the people in the South, and a (belated) happy Beltane to those of you in the North.

weeping willow 2

There’s a willow tree that stands by my river
She holds me in her arms when I am cold.
And we listen to the sounds
Of the pebbles on the ground,
And I know what it means to be old.

~ Douglas Wood